"G.I.'s Padlock Baghdad Paper Accused of Lies"

Jeffrey Gentleman, NY Times, March 29, 2004

AGHDAD, Iraq, March 28 — American soldiers shut down a popular Baghdad
newspaper on Sunday and tightened chains across the doors after the
occupation authorities accused it of printing lies that incited violence.Thousands of outraged Iraqis protested the closing as an act of American
hypocrisy, laying bare the hostility many feel toward the United States
a year after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

"No, no, America!" and "Where is democracy now?" screamed protesters who
hoisted banners and shook clenched fists in a hastily organized rally
against the closing of the newspaper, Al Hawza, a radical Shiite weekly.

The rally drew hundreds and then thousands by nightfall in central
Baghdad, where masses of angry Shiite men squared off against a line of
American soldiers who rushed to seal off the area.

The closing of the newspaper illustrated the quandary Americans faced in
trying to strike a balance between their two main goals — encouraging
democracy while maintaining stability. But as the days wind down to the
June 30 target date for handing sovereignty back to the Iraqi people,
security seems increasingly elusive.

On Sunday, the Iraqi public works minister narrowly escaped an
assassination attempt in the northern city of Mosul, and two foreign
workers were shot to death nearby in front of a power plant.

Many Iraqis said closing down a popular newspaper at such a crucial time
would not curtail anti-occupation feelings but only inflame them.

"When you repress the repressed, they only get stronger," said Hamid
al-Bayati, a spokesman for the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in
Iraq, a prominent Shiite political party. "Punishing this newspaper will
only increase the passion for those who speak out against the Americans."

The American authorities said Al Hawza could reopen in 60 days. The
paper's editors, however, said they had been put out of business.

"We have been evicted from our offices, and we have no jobs," Saadoon
Mohsen Thamad, a news editor, said as he stared at a large padlock
hanging from the front gate. "How are we going to continue?"

Among Iraqi journalists, Al Hawza was known for printing wild rumors,
especially anti-American ones. A broadsheet of about eight pages, the
paper is considered a mouthpiece for Moktada al-Sadr, a fiery young
Shiite cleric and one of the most outspoken critics of the Americans.

The letter ordering the paper closed, signed by L. Paul Bremer III, the
top administrator in Iraq, cited what the American authorities called
several examples of false reports in Al Hawza, including a February
dispatch that said the cause of an explosion that killed more than 50
Iraqi police recruits was not a car bomb, as occupation officials had
said, but an American missile.

Many newspapers and television stations have sprouted in Iraq since the
fall of the Hussein government. But under a law passed by the occupying
authorities in June, a news media organization must be licensed, and
that license can be revoked if the organization publishes or broadcasts
material that incites violence or civil disorder or "advocates
alterations to Iraq's borders by violent means."

But the letter outlining the reasons for taking action against Al Hawza
did not cite any material that directly advocated violence. Several
Iraqi journalists said that meant there was no basis to shut Al Hawza down.

"That paper might have been anti-American, but it should be free to
express its opinion," said Kamal Abdul Karim, night editor of the daily
Azzaman.

Omar Jassem, a freelance reporter, said he thought that democracy meant
many viewpoints and many newspapers. "I guess this is the Bush edition
of democracy," he said.

Tom Rosenstiel, vice chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists,
a nonprofit organization based in Washington, said there was a basic
irony in Americans' practicing censorship in Iraq.

"If you're trying to promote democracy in a country that has never had
it, you have to lead by example," Mr. Rosenstiel said. "I'm not in Iraq.
But it's hard for me to see how the suppression of information, even
false information, is going to help our cause."

Many Iraqi journalists said they feared that closing Al Hawza would only
increase the support for Mr. Sadr, the 31-year-old son of a revered
Shiite cleric who was assassinated in 1999 by hit men working for Mr.
Hussein. In the prelude to the June 30 transfer of power, Mr. Sadr has
been increasingly abrasive, issuing statements denouncing Americans and
any Iraqis who work with them. Thousands of his followers can be
summoned to the streets at the snap of a finger, as demonstrated Sunday.

Unlike Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the influential Shiite cleric who
has also criticized the occupation but not in militant terms, Mr. Sadr
has threatened to form his own militia.

The American authorities said that before they decided to close Mr.
Sadr's newspaper, they weighed the risks of further provoking him.

"But we basically concluded that we couldn't afford to wait for another
issue to hit the streets," said Al Elsadr, the media liaison for the
occupation government. "The false information in that paper was hurting
stability. It was stirring up a lot of hate. It was making people think
we were out to get them."

Mr. Elsadr said that incitement of violence could come in many forms and
that it did not have to be direct to be considered a violation of the
administrative law.

"If people actually believed that coalition forces were slaughtering
civilians," he said, "it could be real dangerous. That's incitement."

Mr. Elsadr said the occupation authorities had invited the paper's
editors to discuss with them what had been printed, but it was unclear
if the paper would be able to appeal the closing order.

In July, the American authorities permanently closed down another
newspaper for similar reasons, provoking similar demonstrations. An
Arabic television network was suspended from broadcasting in Iraq for 30
days after coverage that was considered irresponsible.

The protests outside the Hawza offices on Sunday faded with the day's
light. After the brief but tense standoff with American forces, Mr.
Sadr's followers rolled up their flags and climbed back into their
buses. No injuries or property damage were reported.

Earlier on Sunday, the public works minister, Nasreen Barwari, was
attacked by gunmen while her convoy was speeding through Mosul, an
increasingly dangerous city. A spokeswoman for the occupation
authorities said that a driver and a guard had been killed, but that the
minister had not been hurt. Two other people were wounded.

"It was a close call," the occupation spokeswoman said.

Not far away, gunmen shot to death two foreign security staff members
outside an East Mosul power plant. The two guards, one from Britain and
the other from Canada, were killed while trying to protect a team of
engineers working for General Electric.

Later on Sunday, and also in Mosul, American soldiers got into a
shootout with a band of armed men. Two Americans were wounded, and four
Iraqis were killed.